Process of treating waste fiber.



No. 811,896. PATENTED FEB. 6, 1906.

U. c. ALLEN. paoosss' 0F TREATING WASTE FIBER.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 26. 1904.

U. COT'WKZAZMIL 51440044 01;

l/w/kmcoac A 'No. 811,396. PATENTED FEB56, 1906.

,U. 0. ALLEN.

PROCESS OF TREATING WASTE FIBER.

AYBLIOATIOH FILED 11m. no, 1904. r

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

antenna FROGES$ F TREATING WASTE WHEN are. erases.

s ecification of Letters Patent.

Patented reb. e, ieoe.

Application filed March 26,1904. 'serial No. 200,190.

To all whom/ it may concern.-

Be it known that I, URIAH CORNELL ALLEN, a citizen of the United Sandyhill, in the county of )V&Slll1lgt0ll and State of New York, have invented a new anduseful Process of Treating Waste Fiber, of which the following is a specification.

My resent invention relates to a novel process ticularly cotton-waste of the character dis charge from cotton-gins or from cottonseed-delinting machines.

It is well understood'by those skilled in the art that the waste from cotton-gins contains a considerable quantity of cotton, which is ordinarily lost. This waste is composed of cotton, motes, (undeveloped seeds,) grabots, (pieces of hull,) and various other trashsuch as pieces bf leaves, twigs, &c.-and a fine dust or dirt, which latter is of a poisonous nature and is exceedingly injurious to the health of operators working in an atmosphere laden therewith.

The object ofmy invention is to effect the separationof'the fiber from the various other particles, or, in other words, to clean the fiber so that thecotton which is ordinarily lost may besaved and utilized.

In tlie accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a sectional elevation, partly in diagram, of one form of apparatus for carrying outmy process in connection with mote and grabot cotton, and Fig. 2 is a similar view of one form of apparatus for practicing the process in connection with lint cotton removed from cotton-seeds by a delinting-ma'chine.

Referring first to the apparatus shown in Fig. 1, 1 indicates'a battery of gins, 2 a wasteue common to all of thegins of the battery, and 3 a fan-blower located in the flue between the gins and a centrifugal separator 4, with which the waste-flue communicates at one end. The centrifugal separator 4c is in the form of a conical chamber, with the upper or large endof which the flue 2 communicates At the upper end of this chamber is located a comparatively ,large central outlet-opening 5 for the escape of air and fine dust, and at its lower end is a comparatively small opening 6, through which the cotton passes to a flue-section 2, leading to the feed-opening 7 of. a cleaningmachine 8. This cleaning-machine, exemplified in Reissue Patent No. 7,07 1, dated April 25, 1876, comprises a casing in which is located a toothed cylinder 9, disposed below States, residing at for the treatment of waste fiber, par;v

the cotton passes between the'c the feed-opening 7 and operating 0 posite a hackle-breast l0 and a screen 11, t e size of the mesh of the latter being sufficient to per- 1 Init the escape of the smaller articles of trash in the cotton, but insufficient for the passage of the motes, to whlch a considerable portion of the cotton fiber to besaved is attached. The casing is also provided with air inlet and outlet openings 12 and 13 at opposite sides oithe screen 11, and betweensaid screen and the outlet-opening is located a suction-fan 14, designed to draw the smaller particles of trash through the screen 11 and to discharge the waste thus collected through the outlet-o ening 13, from whence it may be conveye by an suitable means to the fire-box and burns Thefunction of-this cleaning-machine is to remove the smaller particles of trash from the cotton by sucoughly intermixe manipulation of the latter as is necessary to detach and remove the larger particles of trashas, for instance, grabots' or the like. From the cleaning-machine the partiallycleaned fiber is de osited upon the feed-belt 1 5 of a well-known orm of sep arating-machine 16, provided with feed-rollers 17 and a toothed separating-cylinder 18, which latter rotates at a very one thousand to five thousand revolutions a minute. The fiber is caught by the teeth of this cylinder and the rapid rotation of the latter disintegrates said fiber and causes the larger particles of trash to be thrown outward and rearward over the edge of an adjustable guard 19, the position of this guard with reference to the cylinder dependof course, upon the nature of the fiber being treated. It will be understood that as linder 18 and the roller 17 it is conipress'e upon the cylinder, so that while the cotton is graduall loosened by the action of centrifugal force 1t is not released from the teeth until it reaches the lower side of the cylinder, the outer end of the belt 15 acting as a doffer when the accumulation on the cylinder is sufficient to necessitate the assistance of the centrifugal force by a positive doi ling means. The separating-machine does not remove the motes,

and the latter pass down under the cylinder the cleaned'mote-cotton is led to a mote-gin high rate of speed,preferably from -tion before such (particles have been thorwith the fiber by such I .20, (exemplified in Patent No. $5,115,) by

which the motes are separated from the-cotton in a manner well understood in the art,

and said cotton is" thence conveyed by means of a flue 21, including a blower 22, to a second.

centrifugal separator 23, similar to the selparators. The separator 23 removes the ast vestige of dust from the cotton, and the latter is dischargedthrough a section 21* of the flue 21 to the eed-box- 24 of the press 25;

. It should be borne inmind that the fine dust held in large quantities by the waste product of the gins is not only exceedingly in'urious to the operator, but is exceeding y cult to remove if thoroughly intermixed with the I fiber by the mechanical action which is necessary in order to efiect the removal of the "trash. For these reasons'it is not only essencotton outwardl b cent a forcea t y y 4 t gm the walls of the separator e cotton 'adually movinfidown and escaping throug' the bottom of t e separator an the dustaden air escapingthrough the opening 5. Thus i at. the veryoutset of the process of elimination the finest articles to be removedei. e. the injurious ust-are extracted from the waste and discharged outside of the building.

'- removal of t e sma The next ste of thcilprocess contem lates the er pieces of tree by suction before the fiber has beenm'anipulated in a manner to cause these smaller particles to be'worked into the fibrous mass. The next. step contemplates the violent disintegration of the fiber and the removal of the lar or pieces of trash by a combination of centri ugal force and the action of the guard 19', said guard acting as a picker-that is. to say, the eggs pieces oftrash, urged outward by cont gal force as the mass of cotton rotates, will strike the edge of the guard, which will thus assist in their remova contemplates the removal of the motes, and the final ste has for its end the liberation of any dust w 'ch may yet remain by subjecting the cleaned fiber for a second time to the action of a gyrating current of air.

Theutility of effecting the removal of the dust as the initial step of the process has been pointed out and attention is now directed to the fact that the order in which the second and third steps of the process are practiced is equally material, because it is necessary to remove the smaller particles of debris before they have been worked thorou hly into the mass of fiber, and it is impossib le to remove 26 indicates a cotton-seed-delint' Thenext stepenpbe I the fiber by instrumentalities neither of which is effective to remove the motes. In consequence the mote-cotton is thoroughly cleaned and the fiber clinging to the motes is saved by the subsequent operation of the mote-gin. -At this point it is proper to remark that since the capacity of the motecleaning machine is much greater than that of the separating-machine it is desirable in practice toemploy a plurality of separatingtrate this obvious variation, since it does not modify the process. It' may also be noted that t e second centrifugal separator maiin some instances be dispensed with, and w my process is practiced for the purpose of cleaning fiber other than mote and abot cotton certain other of the enumerate steps may be omitted. For instance,.in Fig. 2 I I have shown an apparatus for carrying out myv process in connection with lint'cotton. I machine of ordinary type, from which is 1e a wasteflue27, containing a fan-blower 28and a cen- 4 in Fig. 1. The lint drawn thro h the waste-fine 27 from the delinti -mac ine is. a

blown into the separator 29, wit 'n which it is gyrated by a current of air supplied by the blower, and the dust is expelle in an obvious manner. From the separator the lint passes through a flue-section 27 a to a cleaningmachine30. This clea -machine orse arator includes -anincline foraminous s ell 31', within which operates a rotary tator 32 which afgitates the fiber and rmits the escape of oreign substances t o hthe olpemngs in the shell. The cleaned her is en fed directly through a flue. 33 to the press, or, if necessary, a second. blower and centrifugal separator ma be located in ad-' at form of apparavanes 01 the press, as in t tus heretofore-described. 4 v

It is thought that from the foregoing the the fiber Inachines and mote-gins for each clea'ningmachine. It is deemed unnecessary to illustrifugal separator 29 similar to the separator manner of practicing m novel process for cleaning waste fiber will e clearly apparent;

but I wish-it to be distinctly understood that.

I do notconfine myself to t e employment of the particular apparatus described, as on the contrary I reserve the right .to vary the construction and arrangement illustrated in the accompanying drawlngs to any extent which may be desirable in carrym out the as defined in the appended aims.

What I claim is- 1. The process of treating waste fiber which consists in first subjecting it to the action of a gyrating current of air to remove process the dust, and thereafter disintegratin the fibrous mass and separating thetrash t erefrom.

2. The process of treating waste fiber which consists in first subjecting it to a gyrating current of air to remove the dust, next separating the small particles of trash, and finally separating the large pieces of trash from the fiber.

3. The process of treatin waste fiber which consists in first subjecting it to a gyrating current of air to remove the dust, next separating the small particles of trash, next separating the large pieces of trash from the fiber, and finally again subjecting the fiber to the action of a current of air to remove the dust remaining.

4. That process of treating mote-cotton which consists in first'subjeeting it to the action of a gyrating current of air to remove the dust, next separatin the small particles of trash by suction, an thereafter disinterating the fibrous mass and separating the arge $10068 of trash therefrom. 4

5. he process of treating mote-cotton which consists in first subjecting it to agyrating current of air .to remove the dust, next removing the small particles of trash by suction, and thereafter rotatin the fibrous mass at high speed' to separate t trash by centrifugal force.

e large pieces of 6. That process of treating mote-cotton which consists in first subjecting it to the action of a gyrating current of air to remove the dust, next separating the small particles of trash bysuction, next rotating the'fibrous mass at igh speed to se arate the large pieces of trash by centrifuga force, and thereafter separating the 'motes from the cotton.

7. That process of treating mote cotton which consists in subjecting it to the action of a gyrating current of air to remove the dust, next' removing the small particles of trash by suction, next separating the large pieces of trash by centrifugal force, next se arating the motesfrom the cotton, and final y again subjecting the cotton to theactionoi" a gyrating current of air to remove any dust remaining. 9

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto ailixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

URIAH'CORNELL ALLEN.

- Witnesses: 1

ALTON, J. MINTON, A. Coaoomm. 

